English Authors Mystery

The two strikingly original short novels brought together here - in new translations by award-winning translators - were both literary gambles of a sort for Fyodor Dostoevsky. The first real expression of his genius, The Double is a surprisingly modern hallucinatory nightmare in which a minor official named Goliadkin becomes aware of a mysterious doppelgänger. Written 20 years later under the pressure of crushing debt, The Gambler is a stunning psychological portrait of a young man's exhilarating and destructive addiction.

Emma Cadbury had been an innocent, a whore, a charity worker, and a surgeon. She chose a life without love until she saved a dying soldier in a charity ward. Brandon Rohan had lost himself to drugs and degradation, wanting to die, and only one person could save him. But she’d disappeared. Now they’ve come together again, but he doesn’t remember, and she doesn’t want to. But someone is trying to kill her, and Brandon is the one man who can save her.

As a child, Abby had the same recurring nightmare night after night, in which she wandered through a field ridden with human skulls and bones. Now an adult, Abby thinks she's outgrown her demons, until, the evening before her wedding, the terrible dream returns and forces her to confront the dark secrets from her past she has kept from her new husband, Willem. The following day - less than 24 hours after exchanging vows - Abby steps out into traffic.

In Osaka in 1973, the body of a murdered man is found in an abandoned building. Investigating the crime, Detective Sasagaki is unable to find the killer. Over the next 20 years, through the lens of a succession of characters, Higashino tells the story of two teens, Ryo and Yukiho, whose lives are most affected by the crime, and the obsessed detective, Sasagaki, who continues to investigate the murder, looking for the elusive truth.

In the heart of the charming town of Normal, Kentucky, Mae West has patiently awaited her wedding day to Hank Sharp. Friends and family gather, the crisp autumn air carries the scent of fallen leaves, and laughter dances through the warm Southern breeze. Everything is set for a picture-perfect day, a celebration of love in a town nestled by the serene Daniel Boone National Forest.

The Austins are trying to settle into their new life in New York City, but their once close-knit family is pulling away from each other. With the Austins going in different directions, they don't notice that something sinister is going on in their neighborhood - and it's centered around them. A mysterious genie appears before Rob and Emily. A stranger approaches Vicky in the park and calls her by name. Members of a local gang are following their father. The entire Austin family is in danger. If they don't start telling each other what's going on, someone just might get killed.

Reverend Willie Maxwell was a rural preacher accused of murdering five of his family members for insurance money in the 1970s. With the help of a savvy lawyer, he escaped justice for years until a relative shot him dead at the funeral of his last victim. Despite hundreds of witnesses, Maxwell's murderer was acquitted—thanks to the same attorney who had previously defended the reverend. Casey Cep brings this story to life, from the shocking murders to the courtroom drama to the racial politics of the Deep South.

A threat is called into the LAPD Bomb Squad, a team dispatched to a house whose owner is away, and a bomb disguised inside photography equipment exploded in the kitchen. But it is a second bomb hidden in the basement that has devastating consequences - half of the entire Bomb Squad is obliterated within seconds. The fragmented unit turns to Dick Stahl, a former Bomb Squad commander who now operates his own private security company.

When an ancient beam falls on one of the guests at Charlie and Alice's wedding, it looks like the work of the death watch beetle, an insect that eats old timbers. But fledgling witch Lucy and the vampire knitting club aren't so sure. Could there be a murderer casting blame on the wood-chomping insects? Meanwhile, the old broom that's always stood in the corner of Cardinal Woolsey's knitting and yarn shop seems to have a mind of its own, and Lucy's cat is ready to hop aboard and take the broom for a spin. With or without Lucy.

When a world-renowned forensic anthropologist journeys to Winchester, Wyoming, to examine the long-dead remains of a woman who claimed to be Etta Place - the Old West's most mysterious and legendary female outlaw - he's not expecting to find a man's headless corpse in her crypt. The grisly discovery plunges him and Jefferson Morgan - the editor of the weekly Winchester Bullet - into a shadowy and deadly world of satellite-savvy highway pirates, rural meth labs, computer hackers, and old-fashioned corruption.

In Paris 1940, survival means sacrifice. Like most in the city, Detective Eddie Giral has already lost so much under Occupation: the people he once loved, the job he once believed in. And his latest investigation into the murder of a black-marketeer has made it clearer than ever: Eddie is no longer just catching criminals. He's working for them. Because when a German trader is the next to die, the authorities decide it's innocent civilians who will pay the price - unless Eddie can find the killer in time.

Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s enormous, old, and ever-so eerie—the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play.

After her divorce, Athena has returned to coastal Michigan to work in her family's garden center and raise her son, while also caring for a mischievous wild raccoon and fending off her family's annoying talent for nagging. Working alone at the garden center one night, Athena is startled by a handsome stranger who claims to be the rightful owner of a valuable statue her grandfather purchased at a recent estate sale. But she has even bigger problems on her plate.

Hester Thursby has given up using her research skills to trace people who don't want to be found. A traumatic case a few months ago unearthed a string of violent crimes, and left Hester riddled with self-doubt and guilt. Caring for a four-year-old is responsibility enough in a world filled with terrors Hester never could have imagined before. Finisterre Island, off the coast of Maine, is ruggedly beautiful and remote - the kind of place tourists love to visit, though rarely for long. But not everyone who comes to the island is welcome.

One soap star death is a tragedy, but three all in the same week, that's a case for the CCIA - otherwise known as the Celebrity Crimes Investigation Agency. Amber Reed, the agency's newest support officer, is sleuthing again! This time she's sent to Vancouver, Canada's answer to Hollywood, where soap opera North Shores is filmed. She needs to track down who is targeting and killing the show's stars - and fast.

Stalkers, shootings, and sassy special agents. All part of being famous, right? Well, they are for Oscar-winning actress Amelia Kingston when she starts getting deeply disturbing and threatening notes left by a stalker. When her boyfriend Ty is shot, she calls in the Celebrity Crimes Investigation Agency (CCIA), the elite agency that specializes in solving crimes for the rich and famous. The CCIA send new recruit Amber Reed and her rather handsome special agent partner Charlie undercover to Amelia's luxury mountain chalet to investigate.

A murdered pop star. A mysterious island. A life changing secret about to be uncovered. Who would want to murder pop star Flynn Garrison? That's exactly what Amber Reed needs to find out. As the lowly support officer and newest recruit at the Celebrity Crimes Investigation Agency's (CCIA), she has a lot to prove. She's desperate to get to grips with her first assignment and show that she's up to the job with the elite agency that specializes in solving crimes for the rich and famous, but there's a lot at stake... and it's not only her new career that's on the line.

Jessica Huntington is back in the fourth Desert Cities Mystery by USA Today best-selling author Anna Celeste Burke. Jessica's ex-husband, James Harper, and her mother, Alexis, are in big trouble in A Dead Mother. Family dysfunction, infidelity, murder, and mayhem - what else can you expect from members of the rich and famous who move in Jessica Huntington's circles? An arraignment in court goes off the rails after Jim Harper's Bel Air mansion is trashed and a man is left fighting for his life.

Murder and mayhem take Jessica Huntington to new heights when Libby Van Der Woert wants to meet at the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway. The disturbed daughter of Jessica's wealthy clients, Libby says she has information about her friend, Shannon Donnelly. Another mixed-up daughter of the rich and famous, no one has heard from Shannon Donnelly in over a week. Trouble begins the moment Jessica greets Libby in the Mt. San Jacinto Wilderness. Wild, manic, and sure she's being followed, Libby's got a gun. All hell breaks loose when Libby's Beverly Hills shrink shows up with a gun.

A cold case heats up when the handsome detective, Frank Fontana, asks for Jessica Huntington's help. Who killed his cousin Kelly? Does Jessica want to know the truth about her high school friend's tragic death? "The worst kind of truth is better than the best lie, Jessica." Jessica hopes Bernadette's right as she races headlong into Kelly's troubled past. Believed to be the victim of a hit-and-run accident in Palm Springs, the investigation into Kelly's death had quickly grown cold. Now more than a decade later, a lowlife meth addict claims to have witnessed her death.